Mint Azelias
by Inigeshi
Summary: In his line of profession he knew there would be a chance that he would never see his little girl grow up.


**Title:**

Mint Azaleas

**Theme:**

Bloom

**Word count:**

2001

---

Inoichi cried the night his daughter was born.

Everything that could have wnt wrong on that day did.

He had come home from a mission in Kumo --where he had been ordered to murder three children and their mother for the sake of diplomatic revenge-- to find out his beautiful lover was in labor.

He couldn't be with his wife during the remainder of the birth. On the mission Shikaku had almost lost an eye and needed medical attention immediately and Choza had a foot in the grave because of those damn pepper pills the mission report had to be handed in and he was the only one capable of doing it.

Thee hours after his arrival he was finally able to see his fiancé and children. The thought of finally meeting his twin boys made him grin wildly and push back the night's trauma. When he reached the door of the room that had been reserved for his wife he had been stopped by one of the nurses.

He instantly disliked the woman—she was keeping him from his new family, his twin boys and radiantly glowing exhausted wife. It was just seconds later that he knew he hated the women and her small quiet voice and crocodile tears that slipped past her lashes as she gave him the news.

The first child had come out silent and unmoving it had been born dead and the second's head was out and the body was coming but his fiancé she was dead before the first baby was born and now they only had a few minutes left before that child died in the mother's body.

There in that brightly lit sterile smelling hallway he dropped o his knees and laid his head forehead on the floor. The nurse backpedaled into the room slamming the door behind her. There was no way he could tell how much time had passed as he laid there in silence.

"Yamanaka-san?"

Inoichi looked up to find the source of the voice that had broken his trance only to be greeted with three pairs of pale eyes. "Hyuga," the man said in a voice he hoped wasn't bitter. God had a cruel sense of humor—the Hyuga twins were the ones to approach him carrying a squirming baby boy-- Inoichi looked on at them with lost blue eyes. He and his fiancé had planned for a little boy because no Yamanaka in history ever had a daughter. The dead baby was a little boy and the one on the way to the Sanzu was most definitely male as well.

"Are you waiting for Miho-san's labor to be over?" The twin holding te little boy asked as he adjusted the child in his arms.

Inoichi mutely nodded.

"Mm, that explains why you like hell." It was the older twin that spoke that time—Hiashi had a way of being blunt.

"And you're fat." The blonde bit back, caught in the moment.

Both twins smiled strangely before the eldest took the child into his arm and laced his own finger with Hizashi's. "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant. You're not supposed to know this but some Hyuga are hermaphroditic."

"Congratulations--" the response was automatic Inoichi chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment at a loss for what to say or what to do. The reality of his daring Miho would settle in later.

The detested nurse pulled open the door and smiled widely a bundle wrapped in her arms. "A girl! She's a chunky one too, heavy!"

Every night was spent at the hospital for a week until he was went home with an armful of new baby, supplies in a pack, Shikaku wheeling his breast feeding wife out of the hospital besides him.

When the little girl began to wail Yoshino lifted her arms up to receive the child. Both babies sucked greedily at the nipples offered to them as both men watched entranced. Inoichi contemplated how he'd ever get through parent hood, he was trained in all manner or fighting and killing --not of diaper changing, nose wiping and peek-a-boo.

Those revelations made him leave the baby with the Nara family for months at a time. He didn't want to hurt the girl—the nameless baby he couldn't bring himself to hold or touch. After a mission he would stop by and suffer through Yoshino's hurt looks, lullabies muttered as she rocked both children to sleep and she kept an eye on the napping Akamichi offspring in the playpen across the room.

The fear of he babe breaking was lost somewhere along the way and replaced with an irrational fear of the child.

One night, when the children were sleeping and Choji had been taken home, the Nara woman placed a hot mug of some drink before her husbands friend and sat besides him. "She need a name. I can't keep calling her baby, dear or sweetie."

The drink burned as it went down the alcohol caught him off guard. "…I'll give it one."

"The baby is a girl, not an it, Inoichi." The woman dwned a glass of water and stared levelly at him. "Why wont you hold her"

"Do you want her? You can keep her if you'd like. You can name her too."

Yoshino's face turned red in anger and outrage. She shoved the man away from her table with a sharp push to the shoulder. In her motherhood and femininity it was easy to forget Yoshino had once been a high ranking ninja. "For fucks sake she's a child-- Not a puppy!"

That night Inoichi had found himself dragged into the nursery and tthrow into a rocking chair.

"Hold your daughter!" the woman snapped quietly and shoved the still child into his arms. That night he shoved the child back at Yoshino and ran from the Nara Ranch with unrivaled speed.

After months of training, trying and lectures Inoichi could hold her for ten minutes at a time. The baby's first birthday rolled by and he finally had a name. It hadn't been a great revelation or anything of the sort but a delightful accident.

"Smile for the camera Ino." The blonde whispered to himself trying to get over the nervousness he felt from having the little girl so close for so long. And the child le out a delighted giggle just as the flash blinded everyone in the room. Every time some one called ot Ino the girl would giggle a squeal. So it was officially made her name.

When Ino could walk with out tumbling to the ground, eight months later, Inoichi finally took her home with for the first night. Se cried for something he didn't know about until the noise got so bad that he picked her up almost immediately the cries stopped. That was the beginning of his acceptance.

A night on occasion turned to a night a week, which then progressed to full day spent with the little girl, after that it was only natural to spend a few days in a row with the pretty baby. The progression continued and by the time the little blonde could garble some legitimate words she and Inoichi lived together above the late Miho's flower shop.

For Inoichi things had gotten better; The pain of loosing his soon to be wife was slowly becoming less suffocating and He wasn't afraid to hold his daughter for hours at a time and smile naturally as if he'd been doing it all along. The Yamasaki didn't realize how he had grown to depend on his daughter until she took it upon herself to go outside and play on her own.

The panic attack that ensured was legendary, no person was left unquestioned, restaurant unexplored, toyshop unearthed or rock unturned. Three frantic hours later Inoichi found his daughter sitting in a meadow ripping up flowers and putting them in a pail half filled with water.

"Ino!" He nearly cried in relief when the little girl turned around to meet his frantic eyes with a curious gaze of her own. "WHAT ON EAR-"

She shoved the pail up at him with a toothy grin. Her face streaked with dirt her dress soaked with mud and scrapes on her chunky little legs. "I got these for you! Aren't they pretty!"

The anger and worry melted away as he stared at the child's bucket of mangled and half smashed flowers. Daffodils, baby's breath, primrose rose, rosemary, and a lone marigold filled the bucket. "The combination wasn't visually appealing but the message he could read from the flora was so touching his heart hurt. Daffodils for respect, baby's breath meant everlasting love, primrose alluded to need, rosemary for remembrance, and the lone intact marigold was a flower that meant comfort of the soul. "Where did you get these from Ino?" He whispered hoarsely.

"From a bunch of gardens!" She squeaked and slapped her hands over her mouth, she knew she wasn't supposed to enter other people's property and had just tattled on herself. "But don't get mad, okay--I only took the ones that grew out side the gate! so no one would try to take them from you."

That evening Inoichi decided to reopen the flower shop because although his daughter looked like him and acted like he did—she still had bits of her mother buried down somewhere too. He'd nurture her and teach her what Miho had taught him about the flowers and their secret meanings. In two weeks the shop was up and running and the two back hothouses were fully stocked with every kind of flora imaginable.

During one of the lessons on roses a messenger ran into the room and gave him a scroll before dashing off. Inoichi paled aand gripped his thigh hard as he skimmed over the message. "Ino chan lets go pack a bag for you—you. Shikamaru and Choji will all be staying at auntie's house together doesn't that sound like fun?"

In his line of profession he knew that there would be a chance that he would never see his little girl grow up. To be honest it scared him. So he cherished every moment he had left with her.

It took ten minutes to get everything ready and make the trip to the Nara ranch. He before he left the jonin crouched down and kissed the child on the cheek before placing a mint sprig and a single azalea into her childish fingers.

That was years ago and Inoichi smiled as he watched his beautiful daughter fret at the temple stairs in a beautiful white and pastel green kimono. She looked up at him full lips in a full out pout, blonde hair curled and long and her blue eye glassed over with tears.

"Daddy, I don't have a bouquet! I forgot my bouquet!" She hiccupped on the verge of tears.

"I made one for you baby… here." A cluster of Bright pink star-shaped flowers surrounded by dark green leaves was brought into view and gingerly handed to the bride. "Azalea and mint."

The message was clear; take care of yourself and if you can't I'll protect you.

Ino smiled brightly and threw her arms around her father's neck taking in the earthy scent he emitted. "Thank you so much daddy…"

Inoichi took her and smiled grimly, he didn't want to give his lovely daughter away. He wanted to keep her and love her and be the only one she would ever need. He was getting old—he knew—and beginning to wither away. The wrinkles, gray hair, and creaking snapping bones got worse as the weeks passed.

The bitter smile turned into one of pure undiluted joy as he lead her down the isle with Twenty hot pink flowers in her arms and a single mint sprig in her hair. His little girl was all grown up and ready to start living her life with another, and he was sure it would turn out just fine-- it always had before.


End file.
